Amb. Akbar Ahmed: Unless ordinary Pakistanis feel they can have justice and a secure life, militant groups will have fresh recruits

http://inthearena.blogs.cnn.com/2011/05/30/amb-akbar-ahmed-unless-ordinary-pakistanis-feel-they-can-have-justice-and-a-secure-life-militant-groups-will-have-fresh-recruits/

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Jay Kernis - Senior Producer

ONLY ON THE BLOG: Answering today’s six OFF-SET questions is Akbar Ahmed, Professor at the School of International Service at American University in Washington, DC.

Ambassador Ahmed is currently the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University. He was also the First Distinguished Chair of Middle East and Islamic Studies at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., and a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. He has taught at Princeton, Harvard, and Cambridge Universities and has advised General David Petraeus, the late Amb. Richard Holbrooke, and many US agencies on Islam and foreign policy.

A former Ambassador from Pakistan to the UK, Ahmed is also a playwright and the author of more than a dozen award-winning books, including "Discovering Islam," which was the basis of the BBC six-part TV series called “Living Islam.” The BBC called him “the world’s leading authority on contemporary Islam.”
Earlier this May, his essay, "The Code of the Hills (It's not Abbottabad the United States should be worried about)" was published by Foreignpolicy.com.

"Suspended Somewhere Between / A Book of Verse," is his new collection of poems "that takes the reader from the forbidding valleys and mountains of Waziristan in the tribal areas of Pakistan to the think tanks and halls of power in Washington, D.C."

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a surprise visit to Pakistan last week and said the U.S. will continue to work with the nation, but that it must make “decisive steps” against Islamic militants there. In your view, should a main US concern be the Haqqani network - which is affiliated with the Taliban? What objectives does that network have?

America needs to be concerned about the Haqqani network which is suspected of supporting Taliban activity. More important it needs to watch the general law and order situation in Pakistan. The establishment is in disarray, people in despair. The leaders don’t seem to have any vision or strategy.

Ordinary Pakistanis are fed up. They say, one day they are killed by a drone strike, the next by a suicide bomber, and then military action. They face real hardships – unemployment, shortage of electricity, and high prices. Worse the gap between the  rich and ordinary Pakistanis has grown dangerously wide. Pakistanis see their leaders as corrupt and incompetent.

Secretary Clinton’s recent visit underlined the concerns about Pakistan. It is a key ally in America’s war in Afghanistan. And it is a critical time in the relationship.

What is preventing the Pakistan military from taking decisive steps against the Haqqani–or other militant groups? Can the military control militants with Pakistan, and does the military have the will to do so?

Tackling militancy in Pakistan cannot be left to the military alone. When Pakistan used the military to solve a political problem in East Pakistan in 1971, it lost its majority province (which became the new nation of Bangladesh). The military already has large numbers in the tribal areas and the situation is as bad as ever.
No, the matter is more complicated. As a former administrator in Pakistan, I believe the answer lies in establishing strong, clean, and efficient administration backed by an independent judiciary. Pakistanis must feel they can improve their lives without nepotism and corruption which are rife.

Unless ordinary Pakistanis feel that they can have justice and that they can lead a secure and hopeful life, militant groups will continue to have fresh recruits. I still await long term vision and strategy from Pakistan on how to deal with its tribal areas and how to control the law and order collapse.

I am working on a new study called "Showdown inWaziristan: 9/11 and its consequences for Muslim tribal societies.”

Recently, the Pakistan Taliban attacked a naval base in Karachi—between 10 – 15 militants somehow got onto the base with weapons, destroyed two airplanes and killed 12 security officers. This is a base that may be a nuclear weapons site, according to a Pakistani newspaper. The Taliban said the siege was conducted in revenge for the killing of Osama bin Laden.

Has the Pakistan military explained how the Taliban could infiltrate the base?

Bloody events that have killed and injured hundreds of Pakistanis after Bin Laden’s killing have plunged the nation into fierce debates reflecting deep crisis.  They feel if the army cannot protect them, who can?
Conspiracy theories are widespread. Pakistanis look for the “American”, “Indian”, or “Israeli” hand every time there is a breakdown of law and order. Now they are confronted face to face with the undeniable – these murderers who have killed and maimed Pakistanis are themselves Pakistanis.

Americans don’t know that the Taliban have openly declared that their number one enemy is not America but Pakistan. Pakistanis point out that between 30-40,000  Pakistanis have died since 9/11 although they had nothing to do with the terrorists who were responsible.

The Taliban are at war on two fronts—in Afghanistan against  NATO and in Pakistan against the state. The muddled strategy of ALL the state players has created mass scale disruption and despair among Afghans and Pakistanis.
From your point of view, is the relationship between the United States and Pakistan getter better or more strained? Do you feel that U.S. drone attacks into Pakistan are necessary?

According to military experts like David Kilcullen (author and consultant on counterinsurgency and counterterrorism), drone strikes have a very limited use killing a tiny fraction of the intended target. Most of those killed are innocent women and children. Apart from Pakistani leaders who don’t particularly care for these innocent fellow citizens in the tribal areas, most Pakistanis are infuriated by these strikes. They have also become a symbol of America violating Pakistan’s national sovereignty and feed into the anger.
The relationship between the US and Pakistanis going through a very bad patch but I believe it will survive. Both administrations know the importance of each to the other.

Unfortunately there is growing anger and antipathy in both publics. Americans believe that Pakistanis have been duplicitous or incompetent in their dealings with the militants. Pakistanis blame the Americans for everything under the sun.

This is literally true. When the devastating floods destroyed millions of homes, Pakistanis believed they were engineered by the Americans. When the civilian plane crashed outside Islamabad killing all on board, Pakistanis believed Americans were behind it and aiming to fly it into the nuclear reactors.

Both the American and Pakistani public need to know that this was not always the case. Take a look at the picture of Jackie Kennedy in Lahore in 1962 (left). Looking elegant and serene, she is standing alongside the President of Pakistan in an open car. She is  surrounded by smiling Pakistanis throwing flower petals.
Today no American could travel in an open car anywhere in Pakistan. A year earlier, the Pakistani President was hosted by the Kennedys at an unprecedented state dinner at Mt.Vernon.  (Photo below left.)

New York gave him a ticker tape parade and a joint session of Congress a standing ovation. Today the Pakistani President can’t dream of this reception.
According to The Christian Science Monitor, since 2002, the United States has provided $20.7 billion to Pakistan. What is the U.S. getting this aid and how important is it?
America has always been a very generous ally. Unfortunately much of the aid to Afghanistan and Pakistan has gone into a black hole. The leaders in both countries have made palatial houses for themselves and have large bank balances as a result. Too few ordinary people benefit from it. In any case, Pakistanis will argue that the aid has gone largely for military operations which have made Pakistan into a “client state”.
The US in turn has gained from the alliance with Pakistan. It could not have conducted operations in Afghanistan without it. It needs Pakistan’s military and intelligence support, and also the land routes for NATO supplies.
 Even when American troops finally come back from Afghanistan, Pakistan will remain of importance. It is a country of 180 million people. It is the only nuclear Muslim nation. Its geo-political situation will always make it an important country – neighboring as it does China, India, Afghanistan, and Iran.
Also, a fact often overlooked, its founder, M.A. Jinnah, had a vision of a modern Muslim state based in democracy, human rights, women’s rights, minority rights and respect for the constitution. (See my book Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity, 2002).
An idea of democracy is part of the Pakistani DNA and should be encouraged. Besides, there are hundreds of thousands of American citizens of Pakistani origin. The Associations of Pakistani Physicians has some 12,000 members. These Pakistanis are a natural bridge between the two countries.
When you look at the situation now in Pakistan and Afghanistan, what else should President Obama be doing?
President Obama needs to pay more attention to the long term relationship with Pakistan. He has an instinctive understanding of its culture. He spent some time there as a youth with his mother. He also had Pakistani friends as a young man.
But his actions as president even provoked the generally pro-American former president, Pervez Musharraf, to call them “irresponsible” and “arrogant”.
Obama needs to take symbolic and substantive action. He needs to make an effort on two fronts: explain the importance of a long term relationship to his home audience and thus counter the negative publicity around Pakistan.

To Pakistanis he must appear a trusted ally. Pakistanis are acutely aware that Obama appears to have tilted far too much towards India– a factor that always plays in Pakistani minds. It is well to keep the South Asian context in mind. India and Pakistan have had three wars. Things are thankfully quiet between them now but could escalate without warning at any time. Pakistanis complain that while Obama has been to India he has ignored Pakistan which is a key ally.

Obama could also change the nature of the aid to Afghanistan and Pakistan. So far American money has largely disappeared, as I said, into a black hole. After billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money – at a time when America itself  is in debt – there is still virulent anti-American sentiment in both countries. Intelligent use of aid will satisfy both the American tax payer and serve Afghans and Pakistanis better.

Every Afghan and Pakistani parent wants nothing more than to educate their children. It is an Islamic duty and parents believe in it passionately. I propose a study be made of educational institutions like Forman Christian College in Lahore. It was run – and still is - by Presbyterian teachers when I studied there in the 1960s. The college has produced several presidents and numerous parliamentarians and scholars. Every Formanite I have met remains grateful—as proud Muslims and Pakistanis. I am sure if colleges like this were spread throughout Pakistan and ordinary Pakistanis had access to them the direction of the next generation could change.

Obama should also stress the need to reform the madrassah system. New syllabi, teachers training programs, technology, seminars, field-trips would help change the mindset. In spite of the controversy around the madrassahs, they still continue to produce a steady stream of students with too narrow an understanding of Islam. There is cause and effect. Yet the emphasis among the leaders in the US, Afghanistan and Pakistan is on military solutions. These have already failed.

So my advice to Obama: think long term and act holistic. For the leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan–a frown and a lecture to remind them of their duties. For the ordinary people of Pakistan, already reaching breaking point, that famous Obama smile will be seen as a friend’s gesture of comfort.
Obama needs to remind Pakistan to honor the vision of its own founding father. It may challenge Pakistani leaders to snap out of their stupor and pull back from the brink.

Follow up on Asia Bibi Petition

Appeal for Justice to Pakistani Asia Bibi and Mercy to mankind

            The following note is in response to the comments floating on the internet in the last few hours.  Please read some of the comments, an amazing mind-set is in the works. http://worldmuslimcongress.blogspot.com/2011/01/follow-up-on-asia-bibi-petition.html

As people of faith, also should be known as peace makers, we cannot cause people in conflict to dig in their heels and take positions, we have to mitigate conflicts and nurture goodwill for the ultimate good of all. Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) applied that method in many of his examples.  I hope you understand the avoidance of such language in the petition.   

Three (of the thousands on my list) individuals wrote, “It is too much. You are really becoming a problem for Ummah. Why are you aggravating the situation? Do you know what are you are going to lose - your both the worlds perhaps?” Another one writes, “Islamically, insults and abuses against the Prophet Muhammad, pbuh, count as acts of war and rebellion against a justly created Islamic entity. The Qur'an commands terrible punishment for such acts of war. “Finally, the third one writes, “Salman was a shame on Islam”.

Those were the right wingers among Muslims, a minuscule, statistically insignificant number of people but can become players by shining the media light on them. These guys are fodder for the other right wingers;  among Republicans and the Fox people. The left on the other hand shouts that we have to declare a war on right wingers. Mahatma Gandhi had aptly said an eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.

Prophet Muhammad’s wisdom comes as guiding light; follow the middle path. Every one has a God given space, if we can learn to respect that, conflicts fade and solutions emerge. Keeping that in mind, we have crafted the appeal with a clear goal of finding solutions, which is a deep desire in all parties.

As moderates we are an overwhelming majority, we can express our support to the middle path and ask the extremists to study the prophet and spread goodness in his name and not oppression.

Please sign the Appeal for Justice to Asia Bibi and Mercy to mankind in Pakistan that is if you agree with the content:

http://www.petitiononline.com/Asiabibi/petition.html

Appeal for Justice to Asia Bibi and mercy to mankind

To:  The People, Ulema and Government of Pakistan

Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) is a mercy to mankind, he is indeed a blessing to the humanity and rightfully known as Rahmutul Aalameen. There are innumerable examples of forbearance, forgiveness and kindness of the prophet (pbuh) towards those who insulted and even tried to harm him.

One of the most famous stories, often repeated is about an old lady who threw trash on the prophet every time he passed in front of her door. One day, the trash was not thrown. Concerned, he asked the neighbors and found that she was sick. He knocked on her door to and offered help. Overwhelmed with kindness and love, she chose to become a Muslim.

Once on way to the city of Taif, the Prophet was pelted with rocks by miscreants, his associates wanted to retaliate, even the arch angel Gabriel offered to help bring relief to the situation. The prophet said no, instead he asked God to forgive them, because he was the last messenger. If they are destroyed to whom would he preach? He hoped that if not them, their progeny at will accept the God-sent message to mankind.

He enjoined us that "if any one eats a full meal when his neighbor is hungry or starving, then he is not from among us". He never said 'Muslim neighbor'. He loved humanity and asked Muslims to be role models of charity, kindness, concern and love to all.

What was the need for the Prophet to have endured such painful experiences? It was to guide humanity towards kindness, and shape long term solutions for peaceful communities and the greater good of the society at large. He was committed to mitigating conflicts and nurturing goodwill, indeed he was the ultimate peace maker, the mercy to mankind.

As Muslims we need to keep his message of kindness alive and bring to fruition what he was all about; Rahmutul- Aalameen. Let the mercy and kindness he taught become a blessing to the universe and continue to shower on humanity.

We appeal to the Ulema, thoughtful people and the Government of Pakistan to give life to the examples of the Prophet in representing to Asia Bibi. What would Rahmutul Aalameen have done?

Asia Bibi is not a Muslim and is relegated to menial work that is considered unclean (Napak) by others, who consider themselves to be good Muslims, denied her water from the common source. Is this not a most egregious insult, and the denial of water, the same as denial to sustain life?

First of all he would not have denied Asia Bibi the water of life, indeed in another famous occurrence a person fed water to a thirsty animal and the Prophet had said God will grace the person for that act of kindness. He would have been kind and magnanimous and would probably have us pray for Asia Bibi’s well being. God loves the forgivers and those who repent.

As Muslims we need to keep his message of kindness alive and bring to fruition what he was all about; Rahmutul- Aalameen. Let the mercy and kindness he taught become a blessing to the universe and continue to shower on humanity.

We owe an apology to Asia Bibi, her family and the Christian community. We should build goodwill in our and their hearts.

We ask the people of Pakistan to seriously debate about the blasphemy laws. The violent silencing of Governor Salman Taseer calls for an immediate need for a discussion on the topic. Islam is about free will and as Muslims we need stand against any oppression towards any human being following in the footsteps of the prophet. Amen!

1. Mike Mohamed Ghouse, World Muslim Congress, USA
2. Imam Zia ul Haq Sheikh, Islamic Council of Irving, USA
3. Dr. Mirza A. Beg, World Muslim Congress, USA
4. Dr. M. Basheer Ahmed, USA
5. Dr. Nauman Anwar, USA
and
1. Bishop Ijaz Inayat, Pakistan
2. Dr John Dayal, All India Christian Council, India
In humility, we submit this appeal to bring Rahmat (Mercy) and Justice to every human being.

Sincerely,
The Undersigned

Mike Ghouse
www.MikeGhouse.net

Appeal for Justice to Pakistani Asia Bibi and Mercy to mankind

Appeal for Justice to Pakistani Asia Bibi and Mercy to mankind

As peace makers, we cannot cause people to dig in their heels and take positions, we have to mitigate conflicts and nurture goodwill for the ultimate good of all. I hope, you understand the avoidance of such language in the petition.   

Please sign the Appeal for Justice to Asia Bibi and Mercy to mankind in Pakistan that is if you agree with the content:

http://www.petitiononline.com/Asiabibi/petition.html

Mike Ghousewww.MikeGhouse.net

Saudi-ization of Pakistan

It appears that the Saudiization is catching-on, discreetly replacing a long tradition of co-existence with exclusivism. http://worldmuslimcongress.blogspot.com/2009/10/saudi-ization-of-pakistan.html

Why is the Saudi Product selling? Is it Money? Are the desperate souls getting some deviant satisfaction? They are ripe candidates and are vulnerable to suggestions; The Wahhabi mind set becomes a easy sale for the merchant mullahs, they buy it and latch onto to achieve that sense of manliness, a sense of I can do it.

We need to do the research to find out what germinates it.

It is convenient to blame Wahhabi ideology and naive to wash off our hands that the problem is solved. That is irresponsible thing to do unless we find the roots of the problem and bring about a lasting solution.

Please note that I will not defend the Wahhabis. I am more opposed to the exclusive ideology of Wahhabis than an average person. However, we need to learn to bark at the right tree. Place the responsibility where it belongs, so we can find real sustainable solutions.

We need to study, if there is a correlation between un-employment rate, injustice and how men behave with women, the easy target to amass a wrong sense of self worth is by preying on the weak. Isn't that an animal instinct, rather than a Wahhabi inspired attitude?

Mike Ghouse
http://www.worldmuslimcongress.org/

A stern, unyielding version of Islam is replacing the kinder,
gentler Islam of the Sufis in Pakistan

By Pervez Hoodbhoy
Newsline, Pakistan

http://www.newsline.com.pk/NewsJan2009/cover2jan2009.htm

The common belief in Pakistan is that Islamic radicalism is a problem only in FATA, and that madrassas are the only institutions serving as jihad factories. This is a serious isconception. Extremism is breeding at a ferocious rate in public and private schools within Pakistan’s towns and cities. Left unchallenged, this education will produce a generation incapable of co-existing with anyone except strictly their own kind. The mindset it creates may eventually lead to Pakistan’s demise as a nation state.

For 20 years or more, a few of us have been desperately sending out SOS messages, warning of terrible times to come. In fact, I am surprised at how rapidly these dire predictions have come true.

A full-scale war is being fought in FATA, Swat and other “wild” areas of Pakistan, resulting in thousands of deaths. It is only a matter of time before this fighting shifts to Peshawar and Islamabad (which has already been a witness to the Lal Masjid episode) and engulfs Lahore and Karachi as well. The suicide bomber and the masked abductor have crippled Pakistan’s urban life and shattered its national economy.

Soldiers, policemen, factory and hospital workers, mourners at funerals and ordinary people praying in mosques have all been reduced to globs of flesh and fragments of bones. But, perhaps paradoxically, in spite of the fact that the dead bodies and shattered lives are almost all Muslim ones, few Pakistanis speak out against these atrocities.

Nor do they approve of the army operation against the cruel perpetrators of these acts because they believe that they are Islamic warriors fighting for Islam and against American occupation. Political leaders like Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan have no words of solace for those who have suffered at the hands of Islamic extremists. Their tears are reserved exclusively for the victims of Predator drones, even if they are those who committed grave crimes against their own people. Terrorism, by definition, is an act only the Americans can commit.

What explains Pakistan’s collective masochism?

To understand this, one needs to study the drastic social and cultural transformations that have rendered this country so completely different from what it was in earlier times.

For three decades, deep tectonic forces have been silently tearing Pakistan away from the Indian subcontinent and driving it towards the Arabian peninsula. This continental drift is not physical but cultural, driven by a belief that Pakistan must exchange its South Asian identity for an Arab-Muslim one.

Grain by grain, the desert sands of Saudi Arabia are replacing the rich soil that had nurtured a magnificent Muslim culture in India for a thousand years. This culture produced Mughul architecture, the Taj Mahal, the poetry of Asadullah Khan Ghalib, and much more. Now a stern, unyielding version of Islam (Wahhabism) is replacing the kinder, gentler Islam of the Sufis and saints who had walked on this land for hundreds of years.

This change is by design.

Twenty-five years ago, the Pakistani state used Islam as an instrument of state policy. Prayers in government departments were deemed compulsory, floggings were carried out publicly, punishments were meted out to those who did not fast in Ramadan, selection for academic posts in universities required that the candidate demonstrate a knowledge of Islamic teachings and jihad was declared essential for every Muslim.

Today, government intervention is no longer needed because of a spontaneous groundswell of Islamic zeal. The notion of an Islamic state – still in an amorphous and diffused form – is more popular now than ever before as people look desperately for miracles to rescue a failing state.

Villages have changed drastically; this transformation has been driven, in part, by Pakistani workers returning from Arab countries. Many village mosques are now giant madrassas that propagate hard-line Salafi and Deobandi beliefs through oversized loudspeakers.

They are bitterly opposed to Barelvis, Shias and other sects, who they do not regard as Muslims. The Punjabis, who were far more liberal towards women than the Pukhtuns, are now beginning to take a line resembling that of the Taliban. Hanafi law has begun to prevail over tradition and civil law, as is evident from the recent decisions of the Lahore High Court.

In Pakistan’s lower-middle and middle classes lurks a grim and humourless Saudi-inspired revivalist movement that frowns on any and every expression of joy and pleasure. Lacking any positive connection to culture and knowledge, it seeks to eliminate “corruption” by regulating cultural life and seizing control of the education system.

“Classical music is on its last legs in Pakistan; the sarangi and vichitraveena are completely dead,” laments Mohammad Shehzad, a music aficionado. Indeed, teaching music in public universities is violently opposed by students of the Islami Jamaat-e-Talaba at Punjab University. So the university has been forced to hold its music classes elsewhere.

Religious fundamentalists consider music haram or un-Islamic. Kathak dancing, once popular with the Muslim elite of India, has few teachers left. Pakistan produces no feature films of any consequence.

Nevertheless, the Pakistani elite, disconnected from the rest of the population, live their lives in comfort through their vicarious proximity to the West. Alcoholism is a chronic problem of the super rich of Lahore – a curious irony for this deeply religious country.

Islamisation of the state and the polity was supposed to have been in the interest of the ruling class – a classic strategy for preserving it from the wrath of the working class. But the amazing success of the state is turning out to be its own undoing.

Today, it is under attack from religious militants, and rival Islamic groups battle each other with heavy weapons. Ironically, the same army – whose men were recruited under the banner of jihad, and which saw itself as the fighting arm of Islam – today stands accused of betrayal and is almost daily targeted by Islamist suicide bombers.

Pakistan’s self-inflicted suffering comes from an education system that, like Saudi Arabia’s system, provides an ideological foundation for violence and future jihadists. It demands that Islam be understood as a complete code of life, and creates in the mind of a school-going child a sense of siege and embattlement by stressing that Islam is under threat everywhere.

On the previous page, the reader can view the government-approved curriculum. This is the basic road map for transmitting values and knowledge to the young. By an act of parliament passed in 1976, all government and private schools (except for O-level schools) are required to follow this curriculum. It was prepared by the curriculum wing of the federal ministry of education, government of Pakistan. It sounds like a blueprint for a religious fascist state.

Alongside are scanned pictures from an illustrated primer for the Urdu alphabet. The masthead states that it has been prepared by Iqra Publishers, Rawalpindi, along “Islamic lines.” Although not an officially approved textbook, it is being used currently by some regular schools, as well as madrassas associated with the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI), an Islamic political party that had allied itself with General Musharraf. These picture scans have been taken from a child’s book, hence the scribbles.

The world of the Pakistani schoolchild remained largely unchanged, even after September 11, 2001, the event that led to Pakistan’s timely desertion of the Taliban and the slackening of the Kashmir jihad. Indeed, for all his hypocritical talk of “enlightened moderation,” General Musharraf’s educational curriculum was far from enlightening.

It was a slightly toned down version of the curriculum that existed under Nawaz Sharif which, in turn, was identical to that under Benazir Bhutto who had inherited it from General Zia-ul-Haq. Fearful of taking on the powerful religious forces, every incumbent government has refused to take a position on the curriculum and thus quietly allowed young minds to be moulded by fanatics. What may happen a generation later has always been a secondary issue for a government challenged on so many fronts.

The promotion of militarism in Pakistan’s so-called “secular” public schools, colleges and universities had a profound effect upon young minds. Militant jihad became part of the culture on college and university campuses. Armed groups flourished, they invited students for jihad in Kashmir and Afghanistan, set up offices throughout the country, collected funds at Friday prayers and declared a war which knew no borders. Pre-9/11, my university was ablaze with posters inviting students to participate in the Kashmir jihad. Post-2001, this ceased to be done openly.

Still, the primary vehicle for Saudi-ising Pakistan’s education has been the madrassa. In earlier times, these had turned out the occasional Islamic scholar, using a curriculum that essentially dates back to the 11th century, with only minor subsequent revisions. But their principal function had been to produce imams and muezzins for mosques, and those who eked out an existence as ‘maulvi sahibs’ teaching children to read the Quran.

The Afghan jihad changed everything. During the war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, madrassas provided the US-Saudi-Pakistani alliance the cannon fodder they needed to fight a holy war. The Americans and Saudis, helped by a more-than-willing General Zia, funded new madrassas across the length and breadth of Pakistan. A detailed picture of the current situation is not available.

But according to the national education census, which the ministry of education released in 2006, Punjab has 5,459 madrassas followed by the NWFP with 2,843; Sindh has 1,935; the Federally Administrated Northern Areas (FANA), 1,193; Balochistan, 769; Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), 586; the Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA), 135; and the Islamabad capital territory, 77. The ministry estimates that 1.5 million students are acquiring religious education in the 13,000 madrassas.

These figures appear to be way off the mark. Commonly quoted figures range between 18,000 and 22,000 madrassas. The number of students could be correspondingly larger. The free boarding and lodging plus provision of books to the students, is a key part of their appeal. Additionally, parents across the country desire that their children be “disciplined” and given a thorough Islamic education. The madrassas serve this purpose, too, exceedingly well.

Madrassas have deeply impacted the urban environment. Until a few years ago, Islamabad was a quiet, orderly, modern city different from the rest of Pakistan. Also, it had largely been the abode of Pakistan’s elite and foreign diplomats.

But the rapid transformation of its demography brought with it hundreds of mosques with multi-barrelled audio-cannons mounted on minarets, as well as scores of madrassas illegally constructed in what used to be public parks and green areas. Now, tens of thousands of their students, sporting little prayer caps, dutifully chant the Quran all day. In the evenings they swarm the city, making women minus the hijab increasingly nervous.

Total segregation of the sexes is a central goal of the Islamists, the consequences of which have been catastrophic. For example, on April 9, 2006, 21 women and eight children were crushed to death and scores injured in a stampede inside a three-storey madrassa in Karachi, where a large number of women were attending a weekly congregation. Male rescuers, who arrived in ambulances, were prevented from moving the injured women to hospitals.

One cannot dismiss this incident as being just one of a kind. In fact, soon after the October 2005 earthquake, as I walked through the destroyed city of Balakot, a student of the Frontier Medical College described to me how he and his male colleagues were stopped by religious elders from digging out injured girl students from under the rubble of their school building.

This action was similar to that of Saudi Arabia’s ubiquitous religious ‘mutaween’ (police) who, in March 2002, had stopped school girls from leaving a blazing building because they were not wearing their abayas – a long robe worn in Saudi Arabia. In a rare departure from the norm, Saudi newspapers had blamed and criticised the mutaween for letting 15 girls burn to death.

The Saudi-isation of a once-vibrant Pakistani culture continues at a relentless pace. The drive to segregate is now also being found among educated women. Vigorous proselytisers carrying this message, such as Mrs Farhat Hashmi, have been catapulted to the heights of fame and fortune.

Their success is evident. Two decades back, the fully veiled student was a rarity on Pakistani university and college campuses. The abaya was an unknown word in Urdu. Today, some shops across the country specialise in abayas. At colleges and universities across Pakistan, the female student is seeking the anonymity of the burqa. And in some parts of the country she seems to outnumber her sisters who still “dare” to show their faces.

I have observed the veil profoundly affect habits and attitudes. Many of my veiled female students have largely become silent note-takers, are increasingly timid and seem less inclined to ask questions or take part in discussions. They lack the confidence of a young university student.

While social conservatism does not necessarily lead to violent extremism, it does shorten the distance. The socially conservative are more easily convinced that Muslims are being demonised by the rest of the world. The real problem, they say, is the plight of the Palestinians, the decadent and discriminatory West, the Jews, the Christians, the Hindus, the Kashmir issue, the Bush doctrine – the list runs on. They vehemently deny that those committing terrorist acts are Muslims, and if presented with incontrovertible evidence, say it is a mere reaction to oppression.

The immediate future does not appear hopeful: increasing numbers of mullahs are creating cults around themselves and seizing control of the minds of worshippers. In the tribal areas, a string of new Islamist leaders have suddenly emerged: Baitullah Mehsud, Maulana Fazlullah and Mangal Bagh. Poverty, deprivation, lack of justice and extreme differences of wealth provide the perfect environment for these demagogues to recruit people to their cause. Their gruesome acts of terror are still being perceived by large numbers of Pakistanis merely as a war against imperialist America. This could not be further from the truth.

In the long term, we will have to see how the larger political battle works out between those Pakistanis who want an Islamic theocratic state and those who want a modern Islamic republic. It may yet be possible to roll back those Islamist laws and institutions that have corroded Pakistani society for over 30 years and to defeat its hate-driven holy warriors.

There is no chance of instant success; perhaps things may have to get worse before they get better. But, in the long term, I am convinced that the forces of irrationality will cancel themselves out because they act at random whereas reason pulls only in one direction. History leads us to believe that reason will triumph over unreason, and the evolution of the humans into a higher and better species will continue. Using ways that we cannot currently anticipate, they will somehow overcome their primal impulses of territoriality, tribalism, religiosity and nationalism. But, for now, this must be just a matter of faith.
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